


when the fight is over

by Quillium



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, F/M, One Shot, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-04-28
Packaged: 2020-02-08 14:03:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18624736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quillium/pseuds/Quillium
Summary: **ENDGAME SPOILERS**“I suppose we can’t drink even though you’re not pregnant anymore,” Tony sighs, staring longingly at the drinks menu. “We have a kid now.”ORTony, and moving on.





	when the fight is over

**Author's Note:**

> I know people had complaints but Endgame was really a movie made for the fans and I think we should all love and appreciate it for what it was, a love letter to the people who loved MCU.

Tony is sick of fighting. He’s been fighting for so long, doing so many things for so long.

Steve comes back and says softly _he destroyed the stones_.

Tony doesn’t need him to elaborate.

Steve apologizes.

And Tony is numb for a moment before he turns and kisses Pepper’s knuckles and says roughly _it’s fine_ even though it’s not, the kid died out there and there was nothing Tony could have done to stop it. He failed. They all failed.

The fight is over and they lost.

What is there left to do but pick up the pieces and move on?

So he moves on. Natasha and Steve and the others—they handle it. They take care of the mess. But Tony is tired. Tired of fighting and death and ruin. So he holds Pepper’s hands in his and says _I dreamed about living with you in peace_.

Pepper asks _can you_?

“Fight’s over,” Tony says, and she smiles. He wants to spend the rest of his life making her smile, and the world—the world is taken care of. The others will take care of any issues. Tony? Tony is moving on.

Pepper kisses his cheek and says, “No surprises?”

“I promised, didn’t I?” Tony asks.

“You broke it twice.”

“Hm,” Tony raises an eyebrow, “There will be no third time.”

She laughs against his lips, and says, “Build me a house somewhere that I can go swimming.”

“Yeah, for sure,” Tony picks her up and spins her around, “A big house with a big lake and if you want we can have kids and have a fort and a porch and plants and a forest and whatever you want.”

“Sounds perfect.”

He builds her a house on a private property and gives the Avengers the address _if you ever want to just visit and chat. Don’t bring me your problems_. Steve offers a hesitant smile, and a bridge is built.

__

“Oh my god,” Tony says, knuckles white against Steve’s hand, “Pepper is _pregnant_. I’m going to have a _kid_. What do you _do_ with a kid?”

“You raise them,” Steve says, a faint smile on his lips. He taps Tony’s forehead twice, “You can do it, Tony. You’re a great guy.”

“That is a lie. You lying liar. I’m a fucking asshole and you know it. I’m going to ruin this child. They will be terrible. Horrible. They will grow up with the worst father ever and after they move out they’ll have to spend the rest of their life overcoming the sheer trauma of living with me—“

“ _Tony_ ,” Steve cuts him off gently, raising his eyebrows. “Tony. It’s okay. You’re okay. If you’re that nervous, how about we go pick up some parenting books?”

“Yeah. Okay. That sounds good. Oh god. I’m obsessing too much over the kid. What if I’m not being there enough for Pepper? She’s _pregnant_. That sounds painful. And tiring. And what if _she’s_ worried about parenting, too? No, wait, she’s perfect. But what if I’m prioritizing the kid over my wife and being a terrible husband and—“

“How about we give Pepper a call and you two have a long discussion about this,” Steve suggests.

“But she’s probably stressed enough as it is,” Tony whines, “That’s why I’m talking to you instead of her right now.”

“All good relationships are built on communication,” Steve says, sounding as though he’s reciting something from a textbook. “Come on, Tony. Talk to your wife.”

He does.

__

Morgan is small and tiny and everything Tony could ever ask for. He’s spent nine months being fucking terrified that he’d screw her up somehow and holding her in her arms, all he can feel is overwhelming love.

“I’ll do whatever I can to make you happy,” he promises, staring at her shrivelly little pink head and tiny little fingers.

“Sap,” says Pepper, who’s been screaming and crushing his fingers for the past two hours.

“You did great, honey,” Tony says, kissing Pepper’s forehead, “I was utterly terrified and you were cool as a cucumber.”

“Hm,” Pepper smiles at him and his kid is in his arms and the world is spinning, moving on to a bright new future.

“You want to hold her?” Tony asks.

“I just handed her to you. What, you don’t want to hold our child while I rest a bit? I already held her for ten minutes.”

“No, no, I love her. She’s just very small. And fragile. And alive. And moving. And I am weak. And dumb. And I feel like if I drop her or let her come to harm in any way I will never get over it and life will be terrible and I will personally hand you the knife to stab me to death.”

“You’re not going to drop her. You’re holding her exactly the way the nurse showed you, it’s great.”

“Right, right. I’m just going to sit on the edge of the bed and turn towards you so that if I do drop her—which I won’t because I’m a dad now and responsible and _oh god I’m going to have to stop swearing_ —I’ll drop her on the bed and her head will be fine even though it’s still developing and this is a _very crucial stage for brain development_.”

“Tony. Tons of babies have been dropped.”

“Not ours.”

“Of course not,” Pepper smiles and Morgan is tiny and life has handed Tony a lot of messes but he thinks it’s all worth it, for this moment.

__

May visits sometimes. She brings packets of tea and ice cream.

At first they talk about Peter. There’s not much else they know to say, grief too sharp and soft and the absence horribly _there_ , sitting between them, the kid that belong to the two of them.

She holds Morgan and smiles and gushes a bit and slowly, ever so slowly, they grow closer without the grief between them.

May talks about books she’s reading and Tony relates his horrible attempts at cooking and they take a painting class together for the heck of it.

He doesn’t like seeing her too often. It’s too sharp a reminder of Peter. Of the kid who died in his arms.

But May is kind and soft and she’s the last bit of Peter left for Tony to cling to and more than that, she’s a wonderful person in her own right.

So May visits.

(But only sometimes.)

__

“My turn,” Pepper groans when Morgan starts crying again.

Tony, perched on the kitchen counter and stirring cinnamon into his sixth cup of hot chocolate that night, shakes his head and says, “I’ll handle it. You keep napping on the couch.”

Pepper, who is half passed out on the couch, buries her face in the cushions and offers him a weak thumbs up. “I love you so much.”

Tony laughs, “Tell me that when you’re not sleep deprived.”

“So sleep deprived.”

“Children. Life’s greatest joy.”

“You love her.”

“I do. She’s tied for the best thing to ever happen to me.”

“Mm. Tied with what?”

Tony kisses Pepper on the top of her head and leaves his hot chocolate on the kitchen counter, “I’ll check up on our kid so she’ll stop crying and you can get some sleep.”

“Bless you.”

“You’re atheist.”

Pepper might have already fallen asleep because she doesn’t answer. Tony creeps up the stairs and picks up their child and bounces her around and he is sleep deprived and drank way too much hot chocolate but he wouldn’t trade this for the world.

__

They get a gate to prevent Morgan from falling down the stairs when she starts to crawl and Steve visits and babysits her when Pepper and Tony go on dates and they failed and lost and Tony keeps a picture of the dead in the kitchen by the glasses but he’s moving on and this life isn’t bad.

“I suppose we can’t drink even though you’re not pregnant anymore,” Tony sighs, staring longingly at the drinks menu. “We have a kid now.”

“You’ve been sober for months,” Pepper squeezes his hand sympathetically, “You can do it.”

“I’m complaining for the sake of complaining,” Tony makes a face at her, “Let me have my grouchy old man moment.”

She laughs at him and reaches across the table to hold his hand, “Just get your food.”

“I want a burger.”

“We are in a _high class restaurant_ , Tony.”

“They have a deconstructed burger. _What is that?_ A burger without a bun? With the bun in bits? That’s not a deconstructed burger, that’s a salad with meaty bits.”

“Tony.”

“I want a _burger_.”

“Please, Tony.”

“Fine, I was kidding. I chose this restaurant because they have burgers with goat cheese and onions, are you happy now?”

“That’s why you chose this place?”

“…And also because it was one of the options you gave me for our date.”

“You chose this, over all the other options, because it had burgers?”

“With _goat cheese_ , Peps.”

She shakes her head and laughs at him.

(And later, she takes a bite of his burger and admits grudgingly, _it’s good_. Tony smiles and lets her know _exactly_ how smug he feels.)

__

“We can plant flowers,” Tony says, squinting at their garden, “Flowers are nice.”

“But we’ve always done vegetables,” Pepper says, “And I like being able to eat what I grow. It’s like a nice little reward, you know?”

“It is,” Tony hums, “Our cucumbers were great.”

“Great,” Pepper agrees.

“Great!” Morgan yells. She’s at that age where she’s repeating random words in between babbling.

“Yes, you are,” Tony says, rubbing their noses together. Morgan giggles and pulls at his ears.

“I want tomatoes,” Pepper says, tilting her head to the side, “What do you think?”

“I like tomatoes,” Tony agrees and kisses the palm of Morgan’s hand. Her tiny fingers barely touch his nose. She moves her head in a motion that may be a nod. “Hm? You like tomatoes? You won’t be a picky eater, will you? You better not. We’re raising you better than that.” He picks her up and throws her a few times before setting her on his hip.

Pepper kisses the two of them, “We’ll go shopping for seeds this weekend, then?”

“Sounds perfect,” Tony agrees cheerfully.

__

He has nightmares, of course. Of—of everything that’s happened. Titan. New York. The bits in between, dreams he can barely remember but when he wakes his heart thuds in his chest and he’s left with a tight feeling in his throat.

Pepper kisses his knuckles and says quietly _it’s okay, Tony, fear doesn’t have to be rational_ and Tony kisses her forehead and nods and falls asleep, warm and comforted by knowing she’s there, close enough to touch, their fingers intertwined as they fall asleep.

Once Morgan gets older and the three share a king bed, Tony’s careful not to wake her when he has a nightmare. They push the bed against the wall and cushion the wall with five pillows along the bedside and Morgan takes that place on the bed against the wall and Pepper is usually in the middle, Tony at the end.

Sometimes Morgan demands to sleep in the middle, though, and Tony is always still, always careful when he wakes, because he doesn’t want her to know.

Then Morgan gets nightmares of her own and Tony talks to her about them and he confesses that he gets nightmares too, sometimes, though he doesn’t go in detail.

Morgan seems glad to hear that she’s not alone and Tony holds her tight and all he wants to do is give Morgan a world where she never has to feel the way he did, horrible and paranoid and wrong.

He reads her books, books with pictures and books without and she devours stories but Morgan watches, too, and learns to love playing with the things in Tony’s workshop so he builds her watch and smiles as she explores all the cool features he added (one of which was various dinosaur noises, which Tony thought was great until Morgan decided that she, too, thought it was great and decided to continue playing them without end for two months straight).

__

He never really gets over Peter.

He moves on, but the grief is still there sometimes, when he thinks of Peter. When he builds the watch for Morgan and toys for his kid and thinks of another kid he knew, once, in what feels like another life.

When Pepper is pregnant, he thinks of how Morgan would have seen Peter as a big brother. Of how excited Peter would have been.

But time moves on. And the grief, the ache, lessens into bittersweet acceptance that the world moves on and he must, too.

The picture of Peter is still up, but it gets covered by their cups and it’s a reminder, but it doesn’t tear at his throat and doesn’t make his chest burn with guilt the way it used to.

Tony has accepted the past, and embraced the future.

But he never gets over it. Not really.

(Because Peter was why he tried. Because the world could move on, but Steve leaves with Lang and Natasha and Tony doesn’t mean to but he looks at the picture of Peter and he thinks _for the kid_.

Because he had his own kid. And May should get a chance to have hers.

Tony wants Peter to have a future, the same way he wants Morgan to.

He wants Peter to meet Morgan.

So he starts experimenting with time travel once Steve and the others leave.

For Peter.)

__

“How do you handle a kid?” He asks May.

“Just—treat them like people.”

“Huh.”

“But don’t be a jerk. Be nice.”

“Pick one, May, I can’t do both. Be nice or treat her like I treat everyone else?”

“ _Tony_ ,” she says, exasperated, and he laughs.

__

He used to buy Pepper big surprises and spend lots of money on her but he’s learning that she doesn’t care about that sort of stuff. That he doesn’t, either.

They live a quiet life with routine and simplicity (well, despite FRIDAY living in their walls, that is) and Tony finds he likes it.

Being nonstop and bold and bright and exploding like a dying star was great, but this—this slow, quietness, love as constant and unchanging as a tree—he loves this life.

They alternate who makes food and he makes her omelettes and sometimes he wakes and she’s made bacon and that’s about as surprising as life gets, and he likes this.

He promised no surprises, and it surprises him a bit, how much he loves it.

__

Pepper likes cinnamon in hot chocolate. Tony likes white hot chocolate.

She kisses his knuckles, like a knight in shining armour, and he kisses her forehead because it gives him an excuse to fit his hand to the back of her head and play with her hair while they talk.

He learns to braid hair and teaches Morgan how to build things and learns not to take it personally when Morgan decides that grass is more exciting than he is.

This life is slow and ordinary and everything that Tony once thought he’d loathe but it’s perfect, in its own way.

__

Tony learns that life is bittersweet. That bad things happen, but sometimes there _is_ a happy ending.

He leaves flowers by the memorial in New York each year but he lives in a big house with Pepper and Morgan and there are some things that happened that still hurt to remember but he wouldn’t change it because changing it means sacrificing _now_ , and he can’t do that. Won’t do that, not for anything. Not even to bring everyone back because he has moved on and life is good, it’s imperfect but it’s perfect and Tony loves it, just the way it is.

They celebrate Morgan’s fourth birthday with cake, the first time that they do so because she was too young for it before, and it’s a victory.

“I want ice cream cake when I turn five,” Morgan informs Tony, nose pressed to the Dairy Queen sliding glass doors.

He has no idea how she sees anything, face smushed so close, and tells her so. Morgan giggles.

“You’re avoiding the topic,” Morgan says primly, mimicking Pepper.

“Fine, fine,” he gives an exaggerated sigh and pulls her up on his shoulders, “An ice cream cake and whatever you want, okay?”

“Yes,” Morgan giggles.

__

Before Morgan’s fifth birthday, Steve and Scott and Natasha come.

Before Morgan’s fifth birthday, Tony travels through time and Thanos comes and Tony is tired of fighting but he has to fight again.

(Because this is a chance to bring back the kid he lost.)

He refuses to sacrifice the present for the past.

Steve understands.

Tony is tired of fighting. He wants to rest. Wants to live a peaceful, quiet life in the house he built himself and grow old with Pepper and watch Morgan grow into a badass woman.

“You can rest now,” Pepper says, her fingers cold on his cheek and she’s trying to smile but her lips are trembling in that way they did when they watched _Up_ and the little old lady died.

He puts his hand over hers and he wanted more but he knows he had a good run. He lived a good life, the past five years, and he has everything he hoped for even if he won’t live to see it.

Tony is sick of fighting and now, the fight is over.

**Author's Note:**

> I promise I'll write a longer fic later, this is just me getting my head sorted.


End file.
